P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Personal Worship
Our final day of Personal Worship in the Book of 1 John! A time to look back and hold onto to Jesus!
Together we will pray (P.R.A.Y.) each day – ‘P’: Pausing to be still as we come into the presence of the Lord. ‘R’: Rejoicing as we remember who our God is and what He has done, and Reflecting on His word. ‘A’: Asking God to help us and others. And ‘Y’: yielding to His will in accordance with His word.
As I come before you to pray, I still my thoughts and quiet my mind. I seek to make you the center of my focus.
Prayer of Approach
Creator God, you created me from the dust, and to dust, I shall return. As I enter into your presence would you breathe your life into me and reanimate me through your Spirit?
We choose to rejoice in the power of God’s Word, with all his people in Psalm 145:14-21…
The Lord upholds all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season.
You open your hand;
you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and kind in all his works.
The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
he also hears their cry and saves them.
The Lord preserves all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.
My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,
and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.
Psalm 145:14-21
Today we are reflecting on the words of John in 1 John 5:13-21, where we read:
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.
We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
1 John 5:13-21
Our journey in Personal Worship through the Book of 1 John ends today! My prayer is that the Lord met you as John proclaimed to us who He is. I think there is no better day to summarize the truths given to us so that we can bury them deep in our hearts.
1) John is proclaiming to us who Jesus is as an eyewitness to Jesus in the Flesh.
2) When we believe in Jesus, we know Jesus, and we abide in him. Abiding in Jesus is the goal of our lives.
3) Who and what God is changes who and what we are but only if we really are following him.
4) God is Light, God is Righteousness, and God is Love. With that he calls each of his people to seek and live that out.
5) WE ARE HIS CHILDREN! Because of that we have a new identity given to us by our second birth and it transforms us.
6) We obey the commandments of God, because we love him. No other reason spurs us to obedience.
7) We fight against our sin and wage war to destroy it.
8) We can have confidence when Jesus returns, but only if we have abided in him in this life.
9) The Holy Spirit has been given to us and it is through him we receive power to do all that Jesus calls us to.
10) Last but certainly not least, Jesus died on a cross as the propitiation for our sin. That because of what he has done God the Father receives us into his family and our sins will never be counted against us.
Jesus, I ask that you would draw me to yourself. I ask that you would be my only hope in this world. That everyday your Spirit would fill me with transforming power that makes me more like you everyday. Make me your child that abides in you until you call me home or till your return.
Reflection Questions:
1) What is one promise that I will always remember from the Book of 1 John?
2) What is one command that I will seek to obey becasue I have read and meditated on 1 John?
3) WRITE THEM DOWN and remind yourself of these two things.
God, awake in your Church a love that can only be from you. Open our eyes to the love you have shown us in your Son Jesus Christ. Revive in us the ethic of love that you have given your people, so that we may be a witness to the watching world.
As I read the passage again slowly, I listen for anything that You would say to me in it. Help me see how to position my life in order to yield to your word…
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.
We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
1 John 5:13-21
Yielding Prayer
Lord, I surrender my life to you. I thank you for the witness of John in my life and your Word that brought them to me. I abide in you forever. You are my only hope in this life. You can be trusted because you are exactly who you say you are. Transform me and help me to fall more and more in love with you each day. Through that love let me look more and more like you as I seek you more and more in this life. Break the chains of my sin that I may have life in you. Till my very last breath or until you return let me be found in you.
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in 1 John 5:11..
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
1 John 5:20
Closing Prayer
Father, help me to live this day out of the love you have bestowed upon me.
Jesus, help me to live this day in love as I abide in you.
Spirit, help me to live this day by loving all those you will put in my path.
Amen.